Florida business groups are moving to intervene in a lawsuit filed by environmental organizations that aims to stop the transfer of wetlands permitting authority from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to state officials.
The Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Florida Community Developers are seeking to intervene in the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Earlier this month, however, the court denied the business groups’ request to intervene in the lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental groups, based on a failure to establish legal standing.
But the court has also given the groups the opportunity to refile their request.
The transfer of what’s called the Clean Water Act 404 program from the EPA to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) began under the Trump administration, but environmentalists want to block it, arguing that the plan would end up degrading Florida’s landscape.
“On August 20, 2020, Florida applied to the EPA proposing to take over the 404 program without adopting all federal requirements, without demonstrating 'no jeopardy' to (endangered) species, and without adequately identifying the waters over which it would assert jurisdiction,” the center argued in its original complaint. “The state also claimed it would require no funding to administer and enforce the program, even amidst major budget cuts resulting from a pandemic which the state did not address or even acknowledge in the application.”
Lance Pierce, the executive director of the Association of Florida Community Developers, said the current wetlands permitting process overseen by the EPA has become time-consuming and cumbersome and that dealing with a state agency closer to home would be faster and more efficient.
“A lot of developers in Florida, in order to acquire their land and develop that land, have to apply for those 404 permits pretty often as they deal with the environmental issues and the wetlands that are part of the properties they develop,” Pierce told the Florida Record.
The association has supported efforts to move the wetlands permitting process from the EPA to the DEP since it was first introduced, he said. The reform is especially helpful to smaller developers that lack resources to deal effectively with a federal agency, according to Pierce.
“The DEP is already mainly our regulatory body on environmental issues in Florida,” he said.
Pierce said he hoped that having a new administration, with different environmental priorities, take over in Washington during the transfer of wetlands permitting in Florida would not cause further complications.
“This lawsuit and our ability to tell our side of the story and help with the transition of this program is definitely a priority for us,” he said.